be lawlessness, would it not?" It made her shiver slightly to
hear him so frankly confess to murderous designs.

"It was not my quarrel," he said, looking at her narrowly, his brows
contracted. "Law is all right where everybody accepts it as a governor to
their actions. I accept it when it deals fairly with me--when it's just.
Certain rights are mine, and I'll fight for them. This situation was
brought on by Corrigan's obstinacy. We had a fight, and it peeved him
because I wouldn't permit him to hammer my head off. He destroyed the
check, and as the company's option expired yesterday it was unlawful for
the company to trespass on my land."

"Well," she smiled, affected by his vehemence; "we shall have peace now,
presumably. And--" she reddened again "--I want to ask your pardon on my
own account, for speaking to you as I did yesterday. I thought you
brutal--the way you rode your horse over Mr. Corrigan. Mr. Carson assured
me that the horse was to blame."

"I am indebted to Carson," he laughed, bowing. Rosalind watched him go
into the house, and then turned and inspected her surroundings. The house
was big, roomy, with a massive hip roof. A paved gallery stretched the
entire length of the front--she would have liked to rest for a few minutes
in the heavy rocker that stood in its cool shadows. No woman lived here,
she was certain, because there was a lack of evidence of woman's
handiwork--no filmy curtains at the windows--merely shades; no cushion was
on the chair--which, by the way, looked lonesome--but perhaps that was
merely her imagination. Much dust had gathered on the gallery floor and on
the sash of the windows--a woman would have had things looking
differently. And so she divined that Trevison was not married. It
surprised her to discover that that thought had been in her mind, and she
turned to continue her inspection, filled with wonder that it had been
there.

She got an impression of breadth and spaciousness out of her survey of the
buildings and the surrounding country. The buildings were in good
condition; everything looked substantial and homelike and her
contemplation of it aroused in her a yearning for a house and land in this
section of the country, it was so peaceful and dignified in comparison
with the life she knew.

She watched Trevison when he emerged from the house, and smiled when he
returned the empty handbag. He went to a small building near a fenced
enclosure--the corral, she learned afte